Baby #4 is due Aug 22. We think it's a girl. The u/s wasn't very clear. Dd would be totally devastated if it turns out to be another boy. I'm with Liz. Tonight would be nice. :) But then again I'm having a baby shower on Friday. I'd like to go to it. . . .

I remember seeing another post like this a few weeks ago. She tried posting again later and it worked. I'd try again with different wording, it may just be a glitch or spam filters.

I think I would just let them do what they enjoy. I limit activities that require my immediate oversight (like swimming) or that I consider to have some destructive potential--like watching hours upon hours of TV or eating nothing but junk food. But coloring, or dress-ups, or whatever seem harmless enough to let them play as long as they like. Having said that, I would probably come into the room every so often and suggest other things for them to do ("Hey do you guys want to go play outside now?"). But I'd let them continue coloring if that's what they really want.

I'd be interested in this too. Along with someone to hover over the kids, keep them from getting paint and glue all over my furniture, and then clean up after them. :lol: Or maybe I just need to relax a little. I have a really hard time with craft time. :D

When we were in college (5-10 years ago) dh was awarded scholarships and pell grants, so there was money left over. The university sent us a check for the balance. I think the grants are meant to help with living expenses as well as tuition.

She will bring all her own equipment. One of the devices requires both DSL and a phone line to work (I don't remember the specifics of why), so I won't be getting any incoming phone calls. I'll still be able to use my own computer and my cell phone and I have caller ID/call waiting so I'll be able to see if anyone calls me. I just get annoyed by it. She took off several weeks this summer to visit family all over the country this summer. But she almost never takes time off when she visits us (unless it's over the holidays). But I'm just complaining. I fell like I *ought* to be grateful for the help even when it's not as helpful as I want it to be--it's still better than nothing.

So, I am due to have a baby in 4 weeks. My MIL has been been asking me when I want her to come help out with the baby (my mother passed away a couple of years ago). At first I told her that I didn't want her to come out--the whole family will be out to see the baby over Labor Day weekend and I will have help from the ladies at church if I need it. I think I hurt her feelings. Then I started thinking, maybe I do need help. It would be nice to have someone here spending some time with the kids, cooking dinner, etc. So I swallowed my pride and asked her if she would be able to come. I had forgotten that when she comes to visit us, she always brings her work with her. She is a medical transcriptionist and while she is here she will spend several hours a day working (and tying up my phone line). I know, this is a minor annoyance. There will be other minor annoyances, but I don't need to list them. I should just accept them as the price for having help around the house. At this point I don't think I can continue to be wishy-washy and tell her I don't want her to come after all. But I don't know when to tell her to be here. What I am the most stressed about is having someone to come and care for the kids when I have to rush to the hospital at midnight (is it just my imagination or do all babies come in the middle of the night? :lol:) So it would be best if she came before the baby does. But she came before my due date with the last 2 kids and it was fairly stressful for me. I have yet to deliver a baby early, and every day she would ask me if I was in labor yet. I don't think it was meant unkindly, but in my progesterone-induced state it made me crazy. I ended up getting induced with ds #2 a few days after my due date so that I could have the baby before she had to go home. I'm tempted to tell her to come whenever she wants--she knows when this baby will be here as well as I do. And I'm tired of people asking me to make decisions :001_smile:. Any thoughts?

Yes, thank you. We're going on eight months here. :)

Thanks for the replies. So far, my reaction has been a non-committal "uh-huh" or "I know" with no further elaboration. I don't really want to entertain a conversation about it b/c it's not negotiable right now. But at the same time I don't want to make him feel like his feelings are not valid. A big part of his problem is probably boredom. Here I am 8 months pregnant in the middle of a FL summer and I can. not. stand to go outside. I am looking forward to having the weather cool off and not being pregnant any more so that we can do more fun activities. But then AACK! I will have 4 kids to drag around. It'll be ok, I'm sure it'll be easier than being pregnant. :)

This week ds(5) has started to tell me (with tears in his eyes) that he wants to go to "real" kindergarten. He tells me that he's "tired" of homeschool. He's also putting in a plug for his sister who wants to go back to be with her friends for 3rd grade. We just started hs'ing last January. I pulled dd out of 2nd grade, but left ds(5) in his pre-k class until the end of the school year. I have finally gotten serious this week about following a set schedule and curriculum for both of them, and I feel like it's working really well. Dd has always told me how much she misses her friends, etc, but over the summer she has become much more accepting of her situation. And she's so much more pleasant to be around since I've brought her home (I like her so much better now than I did before). I have no intention of putting them back in school until we've given hs'ing a full year trial run. And so far I'm enjoying it. I may reconsider my decision next summer, but for now, we will continue to homeschool. But . . . my little boy's pleas tug at my heartstrings. I know how much fun "real" kindergarten can be. And dd has always told him how much she loved it, so he's been looking forward to his chance to do for almost 3 years. How do you respond when your kids ask you to go to "real" school?

I think you just need to come to an agreement with the teen that you hire (although I hate negotiating pay--it just makes me uncomfortable). I agreed with a 12 yo girl from our church to pay $1/hr/child, so that would be $3/ hr for us, but I always end up paying her closer to $5/hr b/c our agreed upon rate seems ridiculously low to me and my kids adore her.

:lurk5: I have been wondering the same thing! All I know about them is that Noeo spends a year on one subject and SL covers many different subjects in one year, then comes back again to cover them more in depth in future years. And I suppose there is the secular vs. Christian viewpoint as well. . . . I've been wondering just how heavily Christian SL science is.

I don't have any help for you. But at least she's giggling. :) I pulled my 2nd grade dd out of public school and tried to do FLL 1/2 with her. She spent a lot of time shouting at me, "I already know what a noun is! This is stupid!" I decided to try Growing with Grammar at that point. She didn't like that either b/c it is so dry. We are going with Sonlight for our curriculum this year, and their LA looks like it will be a better fit for us (we're 2 whole days into it ;) )

I've also used 100 Easy lessons and really liked it for about the first half. After that we were ready to move on to something else. As far as reading aloud, I think that's really important, too. You don't want to turn every book into a dull reading lesson. Spend 15-20 minutes a day on reading lesson time, then any other reading should be enjoyable. You want to instill a love of reading in your kids, so spend a good chunk of time each day reading stories that are interesting to everyone, but that a kindergartner probably wouldn't be able to read on his own.

I have recently joined the Sonlight Forums, and they have everything divided by subject and by level. It's really hard for me to navigate. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of info because I don't read all the separate forums. I used to wish this forum had more separation, but now I see how much easier it is to scan through a lot of disparate posts in one place. I find things that I never knew I was looking for. :001_smile:

I'm also using Getty-Dubay Italic and use Startwrite to make extra practice sheets. I'm using SL LA with DS (5) and decided to type up all the copywork in Startwrite (with dotted-line letters), then let him trace the sentences. I like letting them trace a lot while they're still aquiring fine motor control.

Is it emphasis?

I decided to just go with the school's cut-off of Sept 1. Dd's b-day is Aug 31. She's younger than everyone in her grade. But for girls, I think it matters less. Ds #1 has an Oct. b-day. I decided to go ahead and call this his K year, even though he's on a 1st grade level in some things. Some of the elementary schools in our district offer a TK-1 class (Transintion from K to 1st). In general the TK1 classes are filled with boys with late spring/summer b-days. They just weren't ready for 1st grade as a young 6yo. My ds #2 has a July b-day and next year I think I will consider very seriously whether or not to officially start him in K. He just seems so much younger than his brother. It seems to me that maturity is really one of biggest issues with what grade level boys should be at.

Hmm, I would just let the fingerprints build up to the point where you can't see them any more. :D

My dh is out of town this week. So I'm not cooking (well not very much anyway). And I have been keeping the kitchen so clean! He would be proud of me ;) It's easy to keep the dishes clean when it's just cereal bowls and sandwich plates. But seriously, no. Once I get behind, it's almost impossible to want to catch up. My only advice is to grit your teeth and clean up the dishes right after every meal. If I don't do it right away, it's easier not to come back to the kitchen at all.

Umm, yes. This week I have started thinking about how nice it would be to put 3 kids in PS (we even have free pre-k here). I keep having to remind myself that toting kids to and from school and to activities and hovering over them to do homework (and all this on someone else's schedule) would not be easier than homeschooling. I think my panic is being brought on by having a husband out of town and being 35 weeks pregnant. I'd probably be freaked out by having baby #4 no matter what my other responsibilities were. Maybe if we just take in 1 week (or 1 day) at a time? Let me know when you figure it out. :)

Not to hijack this thread, but I've been wondering about these, too. I'm thinking that I will get them for my 4 yo. I've never done any formal schooling with him. But I was also wondering if I should get a set for my almost 6 yo. He will be starting kindergarten, can read 3-letter words, and he's learning to write. Do you think these books would be helpful for him, or are they geared only toward younger children?

Hey my MIL is from Forest Grove! (and she went to BYU too)

I'd see if you can get private lessons for a session. It sounds like the lessons at your pool are a lot like those at ours. I honestly don't see how they can do a good job teaching everyone with so many kids in a class, and I can see how you wouldn't want your daughter to just repeat all the stuff that she's already bored with. Our pool does not do private lessons in the summertime, b/c the instructors are all too busy. If you have the same problem, you might want to ask if any of the instructors are interested in teaching on their own time. Just an idea.

mmm. Doughnuts and chimichangas. Oh how I miss those kinds of foods. . .